Colts executive agrees to 4-year deal with Bolts as search intensifies to find a new head coach

The hours and hours of interview questions — “I wouldn’t know the hours, but it seemed like forever to me,” he said — ended Wednesday morning with a job offer and acceptance to become the team’s general manager.

Now, from a different vantage point, he’ll interview again.

Telesco signed a four-year contract to guide the team’s player personnel department. The 40-year-old is the youngest to assume the position in Chargers history, arriving from Indianapolis where he served as the Colts’ vice president of football operations.

The husband and father of three turned his attention ahead.

He called finding a head coach his “first order of business.”

“I can’t wait to get started,” Telesco said. “We will get to work right now. I’m probably going to stay in town and have my wife send some clothes so we can get this ... under way.”

Telesco replaces A.J. Smith, who assumed the position in 2003 but was fired Dec. 31 after the roster quality, which he upgraded significantly in his early years, had declined of late.

Jimmy Raye was the other top candidate considered.

The Chargers’ director of player personnel has risen up the organization’s ranks since arriving as a scout in 1996.

He entered the interview process as the clear favorite to fill the vacancy, but that changed with Telesco’s first face-to-face interview in Indianapolis.

The team’s four-man interview committee was said to have walked away talking about how impressive he was.

“He came in and went through our roster, every player on the team,” said Chargers President Dean Spanos. “He did a player evaluation. He knew everyone, and he did it without notes. That to me said a lot. He had a really good feel for our team.”

Spanos was head of the selection group and had authoritative say in adding Telesco. Former Packers GM Ron Wolf was retained as a consultant with Chargers executives Ed McGuire and John Spanos rounding out the team.

Telesco will lead them in the search to find Norv Turner’s replacement as coach.

He said he has no preference one way or the other if it’s someone with an offensive or defensive background, someone who’s been a head coach before or would be handling the duties for the first time.

“We’re looking for a good teacher, a coach who can communicate, not only with the fans but with us and with the players,” Telesco said. “We’re looking for a leader. The head coach is basically the CEO of the players and the coaching staff. It is a big operation. It doesn’t matter to me where he comes from.”

Telesco recently finished his 15th season with the Colts and first in the VP position. He previously served as director of player personnel for six years before a 2012 promotion.

He was the top adviser to General Manager Ryan Grigson. Together, they led a personnel overhaul that saw the team improve from the NFL’s worst record in 2011, 2-14, to a playoff berth.

Dean Spanos estimated the head coach search will last seven to 10 days.

It could run longer, he added, if a top candidate is on a playoff team that continues winning. By rule, no NFL coach can be interviewed the week leading up to a postseason game.